Magnetic heads which are to be applied to hard disk, and other magnetic disk drives must be screened in order to secure the quality and manufacturing yield of magnetic disk drives. Thus, a magnetic head is supplied to a magnetic head inspection apparatus after incorporation into an head assembly which comprises the magnetic head and components to support the head. As a part of this head assembly called a head gimbal assembly (HGA), the magnetic head is inspected by the magnetic head inspection apparatus. With the magnetic head kept floating above a magnetic disk, the magnetic head inspection apparatus inspects characteristics of the magnetic head by performing, predetermined read and write operations with the magnetic head.
For example, a magnetic head inspection apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-268955 uses a piezo-actuator to locate a magnetic head over a magnetic head based on servo signals recorded on the magnetic disk. The servo signals described here are burst signals to determine the position of the magnetic head relative to tracks.